What in Da' World?

Here's a little guessing game for you.

What happened?


A. The cat coughed it up

B. Todd shaved his back again

C. The Jackson 5 had a waxing party in my kitchen

D. My black bitch finally got shaved (it's not a bad word if you're talking about a canine is it?)

E. Sasquatch got a Brazilian


And the answer is....drum roll....








Meet Georgie. Georgie is my 1 year old Standard Poodle. Georgie and I have a bit of a love-hate relationship. She is a very cool dog. She's just what I wanted....problem is...she's just what I wanted. She's pretty bouncy and energetic and kinda crazy! She used to drive me REALLY crazy, but she's maturing and we have a little more love now, as opposed to the hate.

Poor Georgie's hair has been so neglected...for months. I should've taken a before shot...but I just couldn't bear it. I gave her a three hour shave tonight...I still haven't finished her feet. Alas, there she is in all her gnappy headed glory. She really is a sweet pup.

Oh, and Georgie, I'm so sorry about that chunk I took out of your ear. I'm glad the bleeding finally stopped. Please forgive me, and I'll consider forgiving you for pooping in the house yesterday.

"I have absolutely NO idea what you're talking about."

(I would like to thank my consultant, "the three bears" for adding to the humor of this post. I wonder if anyone will ever want to eat in my kitchen again???)

The "S" word

Some of you know me well enough to know that "Soccer" can be a sore subject in our household. Those of you who are not aware of this...just trust me...kay? Well, soccer season is upon us....again...did it ever end? Kess is playing, Colin is playing, and even Connor has strapped on the shinguards, the thick stinky socks, and cleats to enter the world of soccer.

Soccer can be a pretty intense game. Parents are shouting..."go, go...what are you doing? Now turn around, go, go, oh, my gosh...what is she thinking?" It really builds a kids self esteem to be yelled at and belittled for an hour. I was ready to rip the whistle away from a coach today. Here he was, coaching 4 year olds and needed to blow a whistle every time the ball went out of bounds??? I don't think they even do that all the time in "real" soccer? The dude had serious issues, if you know what I mean. Whistle=Power.

Well, seeing how we've been on the "intense" side of soccer, (yes, I have been guilty of being an obnoxious soccer yelling parent a time or two...oh the shame!!!), but today something great happened, something that just proves that recreational sports can be great, but only...and I do mean ONLY when it's about the kids having FUN!!!

During Connor's game, all of the parents cheered for ALL of the kids. Connor, being the youngest sibling, hasn't had to endure the push of his parents to make him a soccer superstar. He's just been carted from game to game his entire life. He's never had us "coaching" him in the backyard. He just plays occasionally with his brother when waiting for the girls to finish a game.

Playing with Colin consists of Connor being the go-to guy. Connor's the younger brother, so he's never the winner, and he's never the scorer. He's always the goalie and he's always given commands by his "coach". So, it didn't surprise me today to see, that he didn't really care if he scored, he knew to stand at the goal and play some great defense, though. He loved giving orders, telling everyone to back up and where to stand when he did a goal kick. He really loved chasing his friends during half-time, doing cartwheels in the middle of the game, and putting his arm around a friend to have a chat while walking around the field instead of playing. He also laughed every time he fell down, tripping over his own feet, and loved being leapt over by a teammate when they crashed into one another. When asked by his coach if he's ever played soccer before, Connor confidently answered, "Yeah, I played with my brudder!" I loved it!! And THAT folks is what it's ALL about!

Then we had Colin's game. One look at Colin's team this year and the term "Bad News Bears" comes to mind. They are a mix match of 8,9, and10 year olds, girls and boys. Some of them have never stepped on a field before. Today their game was against a 9 year old Academy team (these are "serious" soccer players.) I was geared up and prepared for a blood bath. It took every ounce of self control not to say, "Now Colin, this team is going to kill you, so don't be sad okay. Just, try to have fun." I refrained, knowing that wasn't exactly the healthiest way to support my child.

The first half of the game, was as I expected...7-0. However, I have to say, Colin's team gave it 100%. They never gave up and they played pretty well, all things considered. Then came the second half...and guess who walked out on the field as goalie....COLIN!!! I wanted to hide under the chair, I wanted to yell at the coach..."what are you doing, he can't play goalie. First of all he's SEVEN...second of all he's playing on the same size net as 12 year olds...do you not see the problem with this equation...not to mention he's never played goalie in his life." I bit my tongue and gave him a thumbs up sign. "be supportive, be supportive, echoing in my mind."

Well, can I just tell you, Colin CAN play goalie. He did know what he was doing, and they only scored on him twice. PLUS, he was SOOO happy because he finally got to do a cherry bomb during a game. He's ALWAYS wanted to play goalie and do a cherry bomb, but we always assumed he couldn't play goalie. After losing the game 9-0, Colin climbed in the van all smiles and said, "I get to choose where we go to eat, because I'm the winner!" The WINNER...he said I'm the WINNER!!!!

Now, this isn't a boy who didn't know the score, he told me exactly what the score was, but he said, I'm a winner because my team did a good job. Boy, did I learn my lesson. I was so proud of him and so happy that he didn't have to feel any unnecessary pressure. He did what he loves and he came out a winner. This is what sports should be about. Parents should be on the sidelines, mouths zipped, with the exception of "Go Red, good job, great effort!" If only I'd learned this lesson six years ago!

Gotta Catch 'em All...Pokemon

Courtney

The Motherly Pokemon

Type: Psychic

This Pokemon Protects her young fiercely and gracefully. You don't wanna get near this pokemon when she is near her young.

(My kids were playing pokemon today, when I snuck in and sat down beside them. At first they weren't sure if I could join in the playing, but then they welcomed me with open arms by making me an official pokemon. The above is what their pokedex said about me. Wow, I feel so privileged!)

Gifts

I wonder today if I could even count the gifts that I've received from a loving Heavenly Father? How many things in my life have I taken for granted? Sometimes I act as if I'm entitled to the things that I have. A quiet, small voice inside reminds me that everything...everything that I have is a gift from God. A speaker at Time Out For Women made a beautiful point, "the only thing we have to give Him is our will. Everything else he's given to us, time, talent, friends, family, etc."

What would happen if I replaced jealousy, hurt, pride, anger, impatience (to name a few) in my heart with happiness? What if I recognized daily that supportive family and friends are not things that God "has" to give me? Each life that brings greater happiness and love to me is a direct and divine gift from a loving Heavenly Father who doesn't want me to feel alone. Without the important people in my life, my life would be very, very different. I would be on a much darker path.

Gratitude. Something I thought I completely understood. Say "thank you", when someone gives you something, thank God every day for the blessings of family, health, home, etc. Actually, that's not all gratitude is. It's not an action, it's an attitude. An attitude that brings greater love to everyone in our lives. If I could love the people in my life with a spirit of gratitude their feelings of love, appreciation, and worth would grow. If only I could remember that there are no "guarantees". One of my children could wake up tomorrow and learn that he or she has a much shorter life span than I envision. Each day with people that I love is a gift.

It's interesting to think how God works through each of us, if we let Him. He doesn't just help miracles come to pass, by our actions, God works miracles by the amount of love, pure love, that we allow in our hearts to then be passed to others. This love allows for greater understanding. Things we would never "see" or "know" on our own, are made very clear by a loving Heavenly Father.

These are such random thoughts, but I guess what I've been reminded of today is that studying the scriptures, saying my prayers, and listening to the whispers of the Spirit are not just for days of trial. These are not a checklist of things to do when I feel like I can't make it another day. Daily, (er, almost daily, sometimes weekly) spiritual feeding can enable me to love more fully and show greater gratitude. All of these things are gifts from God.

Taking a Time Out

I just have to pre-empt my post by saying if you'd like to read the funny version of this post please refer here. Also, some of the pictures below have been used without permission, hope I don't get in too much trouble for plagiarism.

FINALLY, after much, much, deliberation, Sarah and I were on our way to St. Louis for Time Out For Women.

Two years ago when we went to St. Louis together Sarah yanked me from my shell and taught me it's okay for grown women to give the "honk your horn" signal to truckers on the interstate. I was so embarrassed and didn't think there were any more road trip games she could possibly teach me. "Oh Contraire!" Sarah decided it would be fun if I took pictures of truckers for her photomentary. It was like a really bad episode of "Starting Over". She as Iyanla and me playing myself...a typical introvert woman, needing to branch out and stop worrying about what other people think of her. However, instead of saying, "Step into your power, gurl." She said, "Do it or I'll kick your butt!" I obliged.

The Con-way truckers were the best subjects...very friendly. He was one of my favorites, and he even radioed down the road to his buddy, who slowed down and was waving before we even got there. I think they liked us!

It really got pretty fun, except I kept stressing over the fact that the sun was in a bad place and none of the pictures were turning out. Then Sarah put on the pressure and said I had to wave and smile first, then take the picture. Her next request was that I stick out my tongue to see if they would do the same. I had to draw the line somewhere...it felt "wrong"...very, very "wrong". What if they followed us to the next truck stop? No thank you!!!

The rest of the day consisted of lounging, ice cream, shopping, butter burger, fries, frozen custard, casino for a pretzel the size of my head, and karaoke.

Let me rewind though, CULVERS!!! Oh my gosh! Beautiful! I finally got to have a butter burger. Here is the experience carefully documented, compliments of Sarah!

It's worth posting my ridiculous looking pics just so I can relive that first bite. DELICIOUS! I seriously believe they put happy powder in their food. Everything about it is HAPPY!!!

As for Karaoke...oh, that was not pretty! Let's have a serious conversation about this-kay? The bar was small, there were very few people, most were drunk. The guy running the gig couldn't sing, but was in love with his voice. It was supposed to be for FUN! Sarah sang a beautiful version of Norah Jones, "Come Away with Me". Casey and Meg rapped. It was great. Why, why was I such a chicken? Sarah tried to get me to sing, but being the stubborn pissant I am, I wouldn't do it. I regretted it all night. I could've sang Lisa Loeb, "Stay". But nay, I was too worried about how horrible it would sound. I love to sing, so why didn't I just get up there and belt it out?!

Well, because I had horrible flashbacks of my Sr. year in high school. I was Chava in "Fiddler on the Roof". The orchestra is blaring from the pit, I have to sing my solo in "Matchmaker" and I felt absolutely trapped. What is my note, when do I come in, why are they playing so fast??? I wanted to crawl into a hole! I can't sing to the instruments. Gimme a piano, and play my notes...and I'll sing. But give me all this mumbo jumbo without my notes...it's just not pretty! I was so sad. Seriously, when will I learn to let go, be stupid, and not really care? I wonder, was I like that as a teenager? Has it only been since adulthood that I got so uptight? I could seriously get voted out of the Starting Over House for this!

We got back to the hotel at 1. We reaked of Cigarette smoke, we were exhausted and just wanted to shower and go to bed. Oh, but wait. There was a blood stain on our sheets, the replacement sheets were wet, upon ripping the sheet back we realized the sheets were not only "stained" but dirty because there was a matching stain on the mattress pad, among other things!!! So, basically, three sets of sheets, and three mattress pads later we crawled into our less comfortable bed (they were out of the nice fluffy mattress pads). It was 2am, we were too exhausted to even enjoy the slumber party. We hoped we would awake refreshed and ready to be spiritually fed, (and another trip to Culvers wouldn't hurt either!)

Dinner and a Show

Since the boys were itty bitty they have never been able to sit still while they eat. They are constantly up and down, standing in their chairs, or doing little demonstrations. I'm not sure we ever make it through an entire meal with their bootys in the chair the entire time. Most nights consist of me and Todd taking turns saying, "sit down. sit down, boys. you need to sit down. SIT DOWN!!!!"

Tonight the main event was really my fault. Colin was demonstrating an oompah-loompah from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...he was doing so with impeccable timing and stage presence! So, I said, Colin you should be in the movies. Would you ever want to take dance? He proceeded to show me his ballet and hip hop moves. What a funny guy. Yes, this was all in the middle of dinner, I'm not sure Todd was amused, but hey, the boys have got moves, I had to capture them!

Well, like any other younger brother, Connor couldn't be out done. So, he joined in.

Funny Quote of the Day

While surfing the internet, Connor sat next to me drawing with markers. The lid fell to the floor and he got down to search for it. "Mom," he said, "Did you know these guys can disappear?" Not really paying attention, I said, " No, I didn't. " "Yeah," he said, "that's because they are magic markers."

What a funny boy. It makes me wonder how many things he says that must go unnoticed, because I'm off in my own "zone". I wish I could remember to soak up every moment with my children and not get so caught up in their drama and my thoughts. Mothering is definitely a work in progress!

Fishin' For Reel

I live in an imaginary world. I have constant internal conversations. Every event in my life has previously been played out as a perfect scenario within the walls of "Courtney World". The only problem is...in Real Life things don't always run as smoothly as I envision they will. Friday afternoon I decided to take the kids fishing. I took this on with the complete knowledge that I would be the only active adult in this endeavor of baiting and fixing and casting and, well...fishing. I knew it was going to be a beautiful and magical and fun filled trip. In my world we were standing on the banks, casting, and speaking softly as we each reeled in our big catches, one at a time in a very orderly fashion. Well, the real version goes a little like this.

Evidently the only bait available at Wal-Mart, are nightcrawlers. "Ooooh..." said my dad, "Those are like baiting a hook with a small snake." I dismissed this comment assuming he was exaggerating. As I pulled out the first wriggling specimen, I realized how true this statement was. I was literally shaking knowing that at any moment this "harmless" worm was going to grow fangs and swallow my finger. He was FIGHTING me. I tried to appear confident for the onlooking children. Eventually, I had to play dirty with the small snakes and cut them in half with pliers....while trying not to puke. Things really got interesting when one of them sprayed something all over Connor...umm...yeah.

Finally, everyone was baited, and then the wait began. Twenty minutes later we still had not seen any signs of life in the water. Of course, the twenty minutes consisted of, "I'm hot, I'm bored, I'm thirsty, hey...watch out...when are we gonna catch something" Oh, and Colin decided he didn't like me hurting the worms so he would dig his hands into the container and hold all 20 of them in his hands..UCK...then he would howl when I tried to use them for bait. Finally, we agreed on which one was his friend and he carried him around and tortured Todd for the remainder of the time...(Yes, he is showing his worm to Todd. Is Todd's finger a subliminal message about how he REALLY feels about fishing?)

Finally, we saw FISH!!! Everyone caught a couple, and there were tears over the ones who got away. It was usually someone else's fault. There were a few fish tragedies I tried to hide from the kids and I prayed every time I threw the fish back, that they would at least appear to swim until they got out of sight, knowing they would soon be doing the backstroke.

Eventually the girls joined Colin in setting the worms free. They ran up and down the banks until they found an injured bird. They were sure it was our duty to capture him and nurse him back to health. All I could see when I looked at him was "bird flu", so I convinced them he was fine and knew how to take care of himself. Finally, the last worm was cast out and eaten. It was time to go. As we piled in the van Todd reminded all of us about washing up when we got home. He looked at me and said, "What's for dinner? You are going to shower when you get home, right?" Awww, well it wasn't my fantasy, but it was fun!

Evolutions...and not of the X-Men or Heroes freaky kind

Welcome to my new blog! This is a momentous occasion! Why, you may ask...it's just a blog. Well friends...and people I don't know...it is soooo much more than that. This blog symbolizes just another step in my evolution. (Yes, I've been watching "Heroes" season 2 on DVD in order to get caught up before the next season starts...but I'm seriously not talking about that kind of evolution). This past year has been full of changes for me. Last summer I was ready to embark on a new journey...public school for my oldest three and preschool for Connor. Wow...what a huge step. It took a while for me to be comfortable with the idea...but we did it and there is no lookin' back!!! From there I find myself one year later with four in school and me home alone! Wow...now if that's not evolution! And even better, I'm totally okay with it and lovin' it!!!

More evolution...take my hair, for example, last year...long and dark....

This year....short and blond and growing again! Also, I had a few extra meaty pounds on me, which I've worked off since then. (Of course it's all creepin' back on, but we'll save that conversation for another day...and we will also save the conversation about avoidance and procrastination...haven't quite conquered those yet).

Yes, this is me, in all my unkept, unclean, smelly glory...NASTY, but, in an attempt to stay true to my blogging purpose I posted this picture to begin my journey of not trying to be perfect, or appear perfect. And I could probably use a little help in the "how not to look like a boy" department. My hair getting longer will help fo' sure, but hey it's all about the process, right?

But back to my original thought, why is this blog significant as opposed to the one I had started? Because I'm finally in a place where I want to be comfortable with me. Holy cow, I feel like I've been to the depths of places I never wanna go back to, over this past year. It has been a tumultuos and long, long journey...and it's not over yet, BUT I have emerged and I'm getting to know myself, I think for the first time. And it's a really good thing! So, hence I needed a blog that was more me.

I love people, some more than others, (yeah, you know who you are). And there are so many people I want to emulate because I adore them...take Lorelai Gilmore for example...I want to be her. She eats whatever she wants, never gains a pound, she's hilarious and so witty, she can totally say the right thing to her uptight daughter (I have one of those), and she's not a rule follower (unfortunately, I am!) But it's time to let go of being someone other than Court. Some people like me, so surely they see something I don't. My blog will never be as funny as Sarah's, http://thethreelittlebearcubs.blogspot.com/, but that's okay...because that's one reason I love her...She's hilarious. If we were both hilarious, it would just be one big competition. "I'm funnier, no I'm funnier...etc" Plus, she takes gorgeous pictures...I love pictures, but do I have to be as good as Sarah...no! I have my own style...and that's OK. (Sorry, don't mean to pick on you Sarah!) There are blogs of people I don't even know, and I'll never be as charming or beautiful or have as much style and flair as they do! But who cares. That's the point, this blog is ME! Whatever that is. I could go on and on about the lessons I've learned and continue to learn, but then what else would we talk about. There will probably be a lot of evolving going on here...so stick around. It could get interesting! Oh, yeah...and purple is my FAVORITE color! And I've learned I want to be a cake decorator...eventually!

Road Kill

I kill animals. That simple. Some sick person at the mini van plant put an internal animal magnet inside my wheel wells. Did you know that 1 million vertebrates are run over each day in the United States? That is a rate of one every 11.5 seconds.....now that is a lot of roadkill - and I am responsible for a large majority of those.

Among my victims are the snake, raccoon, possum, turtle, bunny, bird, armadillo, and near fatalities with a dog, cat, and a deer. My friend Sarah even nicknamed my van "Slayah!"

I used to get really upset over it and I know just accept it as my fate....and theirs. I used to swerve and now I just go straight and hope for the best. I fear I am becoming past feeling on this issue. I have even been known to laugh a time or two. Do I ditch the car? Is it me? These are conversations I can't help but have with myself.

Fasten your seat belts as you endure many conversations with Court.

I am a friend of the animals. Really. I am.